News / Disneyland Park

And there we were, thinking the end of the 15th Anniversary on Saturday would be the last we’d see of any red carpets for a while… wrong! The new Central Plaza Stage has now been given its final top: a water-proof, slip-proof red carpet with Mickey Mouse shapes and outlines in golden yellow.

The stage, at least, won’t be anywhere near as brash and modern as some of the Mickey’s Magical Party advertising. Its sides — pre-formed plastic/fibreglass-type panels — are remarkably faithful to the original Imagineering designs nearby, continuing to present little medieval inlets and holes in a similar style to the lower brickwork of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant and particularly Le Théâtre du Château nearby.

Above, a larger opening can be seen — likely the place where characters will disappear under the the stage only to reappear via the vertical lift in the centre of the main stage later in the show.

And, if they’d rather use the stairs, they’re in luck — contrary to earlier views we’ve seen, a full side-on view as above reveals these are far wider and lower than expected, making the climb up or down from the new stage far easier than the tricky old steps.

The work for the arrival of It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends doesn’t stop here, however. As reported previously, the pathways to the South either side of Central Plaza are being widened to allow more guests through whilst the plaza itself is filled with guests watching the show.

Particularly between Main Street, USA and Frontierland, the entire area is now surrounded by construction walls and tarpaulins, with not a single chance of a view inside.

• See Mickey’s LED-illuminated new costume for the show here!
• See a full video preview of a segment from the show here!

Pictures: PhotosMagiques.com

Continuing on from the reveal of Mickey’s signature costume for the show and a preview of Discoveryland’s addition to the celebrations, the time came for the MC to introduce the main event of Mickey’s Magical Party.

But, surprisingly, it wasn’t Mickey who began the show, but Sébastien — a live speaking host. In fact, Mickey Mouse didn’t appear until around 10 minutes into this 15-minute performance, which the MC described as “an exact take out of the show”…

The video begins with a quick interview with the show’s director, Christophe Leclercq, during which the host announces a quite startling fact about It’s Party Time…with Mickey and Friends: a cast of 40 people on-stage! And absolutely correct that is — as Poppy the Monkey on magicforum confirms, there will be about 30 dancers alone, many brought to the resort from Disneyland in California, with the remaining cast members being the Disney characters on each of the five areas of the new stage.

Compared to the meagre casts of Candleabration, which dwindled from a large cast of flag bearers and dancers to just the seven VIP characters and eventually just Mickey and Minnie, this represents a show on an unprecedented scale for the resort in recent years — performing five times a day, too.

Also confirmed by Poppy the Monkey is more of the show’s running order. There will indeed be a live speaking host, and the dancers (in orange and white) will open the show, joined by the Disney Characters who will appear together via the new under-stage lift. Mickey Mouse, wearing that “luminous” new costume, will appear even later in the show, via the same lift.

As for the show itself, the preview above shows most of the final characters who will appear: Mickey, Pluto, Baloo, Timon, Tigger, Donald and Peter Pan. Wendy and Goofy will complete the final line-up. The actual premise seems a little hard to pin down, and the heavy emphasis on guest interaction and learning dance moves seems to overlap somewhat with It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland.

One of the most promising aspects of the preview above is the addition of various international, European dance styles — such as Spanish salsa and Irish dance — whilst the modern, jazz-orientated instrumental soundtrack appears to be brand new just for this show.

Video by Photos Magiques.

The announcement wasn’t popular. When rumour turned to confirmation that Disneyland Resort Paris had cancelled plans to bring the popular Tarzan: Le Rencontre (The Tarzan Encounter) acrobatic stage show back to The Chaparral Theater in Frontierland for its tenth season, fans near enough shouted outrage.

Even more so when it emerged the main reasoning behind that decision — to ensure the Mickey’s Magical Party street shows could run seven days a week for the entire season.

Well, sellotape back together your Passeport Annuel…

The Tarzan Encounter WILL return!

Entertainment has now decided once and for all that Tarzan will swing back into the Chaparral — but only from 4th July to 30th August 2009, the Summer high season.

This is much shorter than his usual schedule from early April to late September, but will still come as a pleasant surprise for the show’s many fans after their earlier disappointment.

• Prepare for the new season with our show guide here.

Source: magicforum; Photo: © DLRP Magic!

What’s more surprising — that, for once, a Disneyland Resort Paris television commercial features the actual locations and landmarks of the Parisian park, not Florida or California’s, or that, to achieve such a visual, the production crew apparently headed all the way to South Africa, taking those kitsch costumes and Stitch’s brand new DJ podium with them?

Still, with a spot of green-screen special effects, you’d never know, and the sun is almost guaranteed… unlike Paris. And so, here it is — the large, colourful, apparently jet-powered podium which will roll into Discoveryland for the new show It’s Dance Time… in Discoveryland, Stitch standing atop scratching up the dance tracks on a set of mixing decks.

The podium is like a small parade float in its construction, expected not to remain in Discoveryland all day long but to only roll into the land specifically for each show time, similar to the High School Musical shows at Walt Disney Studios Park.

You’ll notice those circular shapes with different coloured quarters all over it, too — as mentioned in several previous articles, guests will be invited to step onto the circular dance mats shown above and follow the colour-coded dance steps. Quite how these will be announced to a multi-lingual audience remains to be seen, but the bright primary colours certainly won’t be easily missed amongst the bronze and turquoise tones of Discoveryland.

So, has the new advert revealed the location of the show, too? Almost certainly not — well, not unless the Entertainment department are planning to bring complete chaos to the land by blocking a main thoroughfare and the entrance to Space Mountain: Mission 2. It’s likely this location was simply chosen because it looks so good on camera.

Will it go over by Star Tours as rumoured then? Don’t be too sure of that either — the fences were taken down just this weekend to reveal…

…a relayed floor. Brighter, no longer full of holes — yes. But no clues whatsoever that this is where the show will be presented. Keep watching this space (and preparing your dance moves), Stitch fans…

Screencaps © Disney; Photo © Disneytheque.com.

Amongst the resort’s marketing of the five key events of Mickey’s Magical Party, one aspect that comes packaged along with this kind of year-long celebration has been all but overlooked: the decorations.

We’ve already spied the lampposts backstage. Now for another overlay — the new decorations for Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant — which you might have already spotted in a grainy image in the background of the event’s website.

Luckily, magicforum exclusively revealed the full concept image earlier today!

Over the past months we’ve heard every angle that the Entertainment department could approach this with — from keeping the entire 15th Anniversary overlay (minus the “15”), to covering the towers and turrets with multicoloured streamers like those on the new Main Street, U.S.A. lampposts. Now, finally, the decision has been made — and here it is…

Click image to enlarge

Give Sleeping Beauty Castle a quick glance from afar this year and you might not even notice any difference. Though the characters and their fifteen candles are almost all gone — only Tinkerbell, her sparkling wand and special confetti spray remain — in their place, subtle rings and hoops made up of golden “streamers” form the iconic three circles of Mickey Mouse on top of each turret.

In the middle, where the “15” emblem has stood for two years, a new centrepiece forms another Mickey Mouse shape out of two golden ears and a sparkling blue circle from which Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto peer out. This design appears to be the same as already seen on the lampposts and in the larger versions of the Magical Party logo.

Compared against the current 15th Anniversary overlay, it’s certainly not the revolution some fans may have feared (and was actually originally proposed) but a far more respectful evolution of the same “hand-crafted” style the designers sought to achieve back in 2007.

Current 15th Anniversary overlay

However, while the oval “15” emblem was very sympathetic to the Imagineering creation behind it, the design and placement of the circular Mickey & Friends centrepiece placed in front of the oval/elliptical main window of the Castle for this new design has already been met with negativity from fans just in the brief time this concept has been online.

…As, in fact, has the whole idea of a Castle overlay for Mickey’s Magical Party itself. The feeling is summed up well by Kristof on magicforum, who concludes “Castle decorations should only be used in my opinion for truly remarkable occasions, like (and perhaps only) for the park’s anniversary.”

What’s your opinion of the new Mickey’s Magical Party overlay?

Visual © Disney, photo © DLRP Magic!.

Will Disneyland Park be decorated for Mickey’s Magical Party? You bet it will. Though perhaps not as strongly as for the 15th Anniversary, you can expect to spot the year-long celebration even when none of its three Disneyland Park events are happening.

The first item on the (small, it should be said) list of decorations is a new look for Main Street’s “seasonal” giant white lampposts. “Seasonal” because they were first introduced as the Princess chandeliers for Christmas 2005, before being converted to hold the large, blue, LED-encrusted Lumière banners we’ve enjoyed for two whole years of the 15th Anniversary…

…And the resort’s Entertainment department doesn’t plan on retiring them any time soon.

From late next month, expect to see Main Street, U.S.A. lined by lampposts transformed into a whole new style, covered with bright, multi-coloured streamers (similar to those seen at the American parks), topped with yellow “Mickey Mouse” shapes and holding blue circles showing an image of not only Mickey, but Donald, Goofy and Pluto too.

Retlaw on Disney Central Plaza forum managed to capture the first photo of the first “test” lamppost to be converted, hiding behind a backstage hedge:

The design is… eclectic, shall we say, and certainly far more modern than the classically-styled 15th Anniversary banners. The bright mixture of colours and the overall design of the streamers wrapped around the white poles closely resembles designs seen at the entrances of Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida for their various celebrations over recent years, a sign that perhaps Paris has been swayed into following suit (by a “suit”) — or that our resort’s Entertainment team merely saw and liked the design.

As DLRP Times blog reported in January, the old 15th Anniversary banners have already all but disappeared:

If you’d been planning to join the advertised “finale” of the 15th Anniversary this Winter, you’d miss both the regular Candleabration and the beautiful illuminated decorations.

With all the lampposts now backstage being prepared for the Party, it’s a chance to enjoy a brief spell of Main Street, U.S.A. as it was originally designed by the Imagineers (remember them?). Expect the bright colours of the party to begin arriving in the second half of March, ready for the 28th March 2009 press events.

Photos as credited.

Has someone at Disneyland Resort Paris been reading the several less-than-optimistic murmurings about the upcoming Mickey’s Magical Party online? It looks like they’re bolstering the escape routes in anticipation…

No no, of course not. This past weekend, more construction walls arrived around Central Plaza to close off two secondary paths which lead to Frontierland and Discoveryland avoiding the main hub. You might have used them to leave quickly on a Summer evening, or to rush to your first attraction in the morning — you can spot them on our Main Street, U.S.A. map, and they’re one of the unique features of Paris’ hub.

View by Casey’s Corner

Not so much accepting that downbeat fans will want to skip the Party then, more accepting (again) that Central Plaza was never built to handle these large, popular shows at its core.

For Candleabration, such a huge gathering of guests blocking all routes into the park is usually fine, since there’s only one show a day and it happens just before everyone leaves.

View by Frontierland entrance

But think about the new show — It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends. Up to five performances a day, all the popular characters — perhaps even (if we’re lucky), the main core of the Plaza (its raised curb/sidewalk area) being closed completely to guests, allowing everyone an even view.

There’s going to be an awful lot of people crowding the foot of Main Street, U.S.A., meaning those who’ve already seen the show, or don’t want to see it, will have to all squeeze down these extra routes.

View by Plaza Gardens/Tips Board

The only thing known about this work is that it will “widen” the paths. Concerns about the lack of space for popular shows here was only raised as recently as this Christmas, when, for safety reasons, the park’s record attendance meant that none of the scheduled performances of Enchanted Candleabration were advertised on the park programme, in case such a large volume of people appeared that all walkways were blocked.

Photos by Scrooge, Disney Magic Interactive forum.

Guests had the unique opportunity to meet both Mickey and Minnie Mouse together, at once, in Town Square, or both Donald and Daisy Duck near Casey’s Corner.

As the Characters Photos Blog reports, Mickey and Minnie came dressed for the occasion in special costumes — Mickey with red hearts decorating his shirt and Minnie in a bright pink polka-dot number:

Never one to miss a new trend, however, Minnie was also spotted in a different — even more loved-up — dress over the weekend by Scrooge at Disney Magic Interactive forum:

A scattering of white hearts replace the classic polka dots on her dress, which has longer sleeves and extra red trims!

Between their regular clothes, Christmas and Halloween costumes, Welsh and Irish dress and individual park and land outfits, the wardrobes of the happy couple continue to grow!

Photos as credited.